Landlocked principals
For principals in Bangui, the sea starts at Douala or one of the other gateways. Maingate Shipping attends the vessel, clears the corridor paperwork and reports to the inland office as if it were standing on the quay.
Relief and mission cargo is a large share of the traffic, and the desk reports to those principals' standards. That is why Maingate Shipping runs a corridor desk for Central African Republic rather than treating its cargo as a footnote to a port call: the gateways are Douala, Pointe-Noire, the cargoes are fuel, food staples, relief cargo and equipment inbound and timber, cotton and coffee outbound, and the file has to hold together from the ship's rail to the border.
Regime and formalities: cargo moves under the Central African transit regime from Douala, with humanitarian cargo following the agencies' procedures.
Principals in Bangui receive the same reports as the vessel's owner, in the same style, from one desk.
Central African Republic's gateways, and what each is for. Douala: the Douala–Bangui road corridor, the main route. Pointe-Noire: the Pointe-Noire route by rail to Brazzaville and river to Bangui.
The desk quotes the options for each cargo on current port and border conditions, and the principal chooses on cost and time rather than on habit.
Imports for Central African Republic are fuel, food staples, relief cargo and equipment, and most of them arrive in bulk or in bags on vessels the desk attends at the gateway. Discharge is planned with the receiver's forwarder, the bond is lodged and the haulage booked to the rate the berth can deliver.
The inland office receives the daily figures and the out-turn as the receiver's clearing agent does.
The outbound side of Central African Republic's trade is timber, cotton and coffee, and it lives or dies on the timing between the corridor and the ship. The desk fixes or attends the vessel, supervises loading and issues the documents.
Exporters receive the loading report and the bills of lading through the same desk that handled their imports.
Cargo moves under the Central African transit regime from Douala, with humanitarian cargo following the agencies' procedures. The desk prepares the declarations and bonds with the clearing agent, keeps the corridor documents with the cargo to the border, and reports each stage to the inland office.
Relief and mission cargo is a large share of the traffic, and the desk reports to those principals' standards.
At Mombasa and Lamu with its own staff; at the other gateways through partner agents under Maingate's instruction, with coordination and reporting from Mombasa.
Vessel nominations timed to the programme, loading supervision, export documents and bills of lading through one contact.
Port charges, haulage and clearing at cost with receipts, plus the agreed agency and coordination fees, in one account per shipment.
Planned as one voyage with a DA per port and consistent documents.
Receipts behind every line, a record behind every stoppage, a desk behind every call.
Gateway desks and corridor services on one instruction line.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091